Season over for VFW after losses at Sub-Districts

Sleepy Eye VFW’s summer baseball season came to a close over the weekend after the team lost to Mankato Maroon and Dassel at the Sub-District Tournament in Sleepy Eye.

Chris Flores/Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch

Sleepy Eye VFW’s summer baseball season came to a close over the weekend after the team lost to Mankato Maroon and Dassel at the Sub-District Tournament in Sleepy Eye.

Sleepy Eye took on Mankato Maroon for their first game of the tournament on July 18, where Mankato was able to pull off a close 4-3 win.

Sleepy Eye scored a run to start off the game, but made two costly throwing errors in the bottom of the first. Each throwing error resulted in a run for Mankato, which gave the team a 2-1 lead.

Mankato continued to hit well, as the team had multiple base hits in the bottom of the second and scored a run off of a wild pitch from Jake Mielke.

Sleepy Eye’s offense came alive in the top of the fourth, after it took advantage of a couple of walks thrown by Mankato. Carter Krzmarzick hit an RBI to make it a one run game, and Elliot Braun had a chance to bring in more with bases loaded and two outs, but unfortunately struck out at the plate.

Another chance for a huge inning for Sleepy Eye played out in the top of the sixth inning, after a combination of walks and hits brought Sleepy Eye with bases loaded and no outs. But a couple of players felt the pressure to hit in their teammates and struggled at bat. Sleepy Eye was only able to score a single run in the inning, which tied the game 3-3.

Mankato took advantage of the unsuccessful inning for Sleepy Eye and scored one of its own to get the win in the seventh.

On July 19, Sleepy Eye faced Dassel which resulted in Sleepy Eye’s last game of the summer.

Dassel came out strong and scored two runs in the bottom of the first to set the tone of the game. Sleepy Eye responded in the second with a double by Lucas Heiderscheidt which brought in Jon Kopacek. Heiderscheidt then scored off of a steal by Dylan Klein which tied the game 2-2.

But Dassel pulled away after it scored two runs in the second, two in the fourth, and three more in the fifth from a home run and a base hit, making the score 9-2.

Sleepy Eye had a comeback opportunity in the sixth, after a triple by Matt Berkner brought in two runs for Sleepy Eye. But the lead by Dassel was too great and Dassel was able to win 9-5.

Jon Kopacek and Alex Sellner split the game on the mound for Sleepy Eye. Kopacek allowed six runs, seven hits, and threw four walks with only one strikeout.

Sleepy Eye ends its season with a 14-7 record.

New Ulm Gold ended up with the Sub-District Title, after it defeated Dassel 4-3 in the championship game on July 21.